Emergence

Chapter 4

At five A.M. Kate reached sleepily for her ringing cell phone. Castle stirred and grumbled beside her as Kate looked at the caller ID. "It's Lanie. She doesn't know we're in California. She's on New York time. Kate accepted the call and thumbed the speaker. "Hi, Lanie."

"Hey girl, sounds like you're sleeping in. Good for you. Javi said you're off Mike Royce's case, but you and Castle are the best with the weird stuff, and I have something very weird. I got a call from ballistics. When they tried to look at the bullets I removed from Mike, they dissolved. And when CSU ran the note Mike wrote to you, they found traces of the same stuff the bullets were made of on it. There's nothing to match it in the spectral library, Kate. It's some brand-new alloy. Tell Castle, if he isn't already hearing this, to see if he can wrap his head around this one."

Color rising in her face, Kate raked her bed-mussed hair out of her face. "I will Lanie, thanks."

"You're welcome, girlfriend. Let me know if you and writer boy come up with anything."

"Dissolving bullets, they must have been the developmental weapon Mike had in his notes," Castle realized, fully alert. "Maybe the whistle blower brought Mike a sample and something rubbed off on his hands or his clothes and transferred to the note. What was in that note, anyway?"

"Not much we don't already know, Castle," Kate said. "Anyway, it's in evidence now. I can share it with you when the case is over."

"I'm going to hold you to that," Castle replied. "And speaking of holding, now that we're wide awake, we can blissfully pass the time until it's a decent hour to arise from this splendid bower."

Kate rolled over to face him and teased a fingertip lightly over the soft sprinkling of hair on his chest. "Did you want to hold something of mine or did you want me to wrap my fingers around something of yours?"

Castle pulled her tightly against his groin, his large hands cupping her from behind. "How about both? But you don't have to limit yourself to your fingers."

"Mm," Kate agreed, "I can use a snack before breakfast."

"As can I," Castle responded. "Feel free to put your lascivious lips anywhere that pleases you."

"If you'll return the favor, Castle."

"Detective Beckett, that will be my very great pleasure."

"You know, Kate," Castle proposed, as he handed Kate a chocolate croissant from a generous early morning spread that room service had delivered, "now that we know a terrorist threat may be involved, maybe we should call Homeland Security, not that I enjoy the notion of ever meeting up with Agent Fallon again."

"Me either, Castle, and we may have to call him at some point, but I'd rather wait until I have something real on Ganz. You know how hard-assed Fallon is, and the first thing he'd do if we called, is talk to Captain Montgomery. "

"Point taken," Castle allowed.

"Let's finish breakfast and go scout out Ganz's favorite hotel," Kate suggested. "I can figure out how to stage my entrance when he's doing his business there."

Kate and Rick soon found out that accessing Ganz's favorite poolside during off hours was impossible without a room key. Castle rented a room, both to allow them entry into hotel facilities and to give Kate a staging area. There was also a view of the pool from their balcony, so they could note when activity in the area picked up. There were a few devoted swimmers in the pool as Kate and Castle examined the otherwise empty cabana area and the surrounding greenery, as well as the setup of the lounge chairs, at poolside. Castle pointed. "If Ganz wants the best view of the pool, he'll be over there. I would, had I not already found my Venus rising from the waves - I mean if a pool actually had waves."

"I'll make some for Ganz," Kate vowed, "enough to drown him. I think you're right, Castle. If I enter the pool from the far end and emerge slowly just in front of him, that should create the effect we want."

"The effect you want," Castle said. "I'd rather set up in the bushes and bug him with a parabolic mike or something. Less dramatic and less risky."

"And less likely to yield the results we want," Kate argued, "at least as quickly. I'll be fine Castle."

With a hotel robe covering the skin colored scraps that made up her suit, and sunglasses covering her eyes, Kate stood on her temporary room's balcony and watched the seating area she'd decided would be Ganz's most likely deal making arena. She saw a man cockily drop into a chair while women and attentive hotel staff buzzed around him. His cell phone was never out of his hand. Kate turned back to where Castle waited, nervously sipping a four-dollar soft drink and munching on twelve-dollar mixed nuts from the mini-bar. "Castle, it's show time."

Kate swam smoothly into Ganz's view, while Castle watched from the greenery that surrounded the pool. She emerged from the water, letting the moisture glisten on her skin and drip from the ends of the wet strands of her hair. She could feel, even before she saw, Ganz's heated gaze. She climbed out of the pool, her graceful gait accenting the motion of her hips just enough, as she moved to wrap herself in a translucent sarong, in a way that issued an invitation to remove the filmy garment. Watching, Castle pulled at his collar and sweated. Kate looked hot, too hot. She stretched out on a chaise lounge a few feet from Ganz, arching her back to lift her body toward the sun before she gazed his way with a look of obvious interest.

Ganz rose from his seat. "I like a woman who knows how to make an entrance. I haven't seen you here before. New to L.A.?"

"Not exactly an original line," Kate commented. "I come and go, depending on where my business takes me."

"So, are you here now, on business or pleasure?" Ganz asked.

"Perhaps a little of both," Kate suggested. "I'm Lola Black. I represent certain interested parties, Mr. Ganz. I'm told you have some very intriguing merchandise."

"If that is the case, Ms. Black, as beautiful as you are, your interests, as you call them, would have to make an equally intriguing offer, to draw my continued interest."

"I would not have thought otherwise," Kate responded. "Twenty million, wired to the account of your choice, on successful demonstration."

"There's already a demonstration video on the dark net," Ganz protested.

Kate made a mental note to have Castle search for it as soon as they returned to their own hotel, and the impressive computer array Maurice had provided. "That video is why I'm here, Mr. Ganz. But we both know that video can be altered. So, a live, in person demonstration, and twenty-million is yours, Mr. Ganz. Kate pulled a card she'd had Maurice arrange to have printed for her, from a well-concealed pocket in the sarong. "You can reach me here, Mr. Ganz. That number will be good for four hours."

"I will keep that in mind, Ms. Black," Ganz replied. "Now, I have other contacts to make."

Ganz returned to his chair and picked up his phone. Kate did her best to appear to casually absorb the sun's rapidly warming rays before she caught Castle's eye and they returned to their upstairs room, so that Kate could retrieve her street clothes. "It looked like he took the bait," Castle said.

"I hope so, Castle. Maybe I should have given him a bigger time window."

"No Kate, from where I watched, every move you made was perfect." Castle's fingers curled into fists. "Too perfect," he thought.